


You Saved Me

by Sydders09



Series: Cowboy Bebop (Spike Spiegel) [2]
Category: Cowboy Bebop (Anime)
Genre: Caring, F/M, Friendship, Injury, New Chapter in Life, Post Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:27:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24118756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sydders09/pseuds/Sydders09
Summary: Vida returns to the Bebop to find Jet alone after Faye ditches and Spike dives headfirst into his past.
Relationships: Spike Spiegel/Original Female Character
Series: Cowboy Bebop (Spike Spiegel) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740274
Kudos: 11





	You Saved Me

Coming back from a visit to her grandmother to find out Spike left to confront his past was not what Vida expected. Finding out that Spike’s past involved a dangerous syndicate and a man he was intent to kill put her in a riot.

“He’s doing what?! And you’re just sitting here?! Jet! He’s your best friend!”

Jet scoffed. ‘Friends work together, stick together. He told me to stay here. You know Faye left, too.”

“Faye always leaves.”

The burly man clipped a few branches off one of his bonsai.

“Jet… we can’t let him go out there alone. He’ll… Spike will die out there if Vicious is as bad as everyone says. Someone has to die for this to end and it could be Spike.”

“Then go save him, Vida. I’m done dealing with his laziness and uncaring attitude.”

“Fine,” she said. “Keep your comms open.”

Jet grunted.

Vida rolled her eyes and ran back to her ship. She’d have to refuel once she landed on Mars, but it could wait until she found Spike. He was priority.

As soon as she landed in Tharsis, Vida hauled ass toward the Red Dragon Syndicate building. Why wouldn’t it end where it all began?

Vida saw Spike limping up a long staircase toward police officers. She didn’t stop. He lifted his finger toward the officer as if it was a gun before collapsing.

“Spike!” she shouted, picking up speed. Before the cops could get any closer, Vida tripped up the stairs to reach the hunter. She touched his face, wincing at the blood coming from a head wound. “Don’t give up, Spike. I’m here. Don’t give up when you can finally live. Please.” Vida glared at the nearest police officer. “We need an ambulance here now!”

“Who are you to this man?”

“We work together. Please, get him some help. I can answer questions later, but he needs help first.”

The officer looked over his shoulder, signaling for a stretcher. “Is there anyone else in the building?”

“If anyone is still alive in there, I suggest they are put behind bars or killed on site.” Vida watched the medical team carefully lift Spike onto the stretcher. “If a man with silver hair is somehow still alive… make sure he’s not. The universe will be better off without him” She followed the stretcher to the ambulance, climbing in behind the paramedics.

Vida stayed in the hospital waiting room for days. She let Jet know she found Spike and continued to keep him updated. She only left to eat. That went on for a week before Jet showed up and forced her to get proper sleep back on the Bebop. Vida didn’t like it, but she took his suggestion to heart, too tired to fight back.

As the second week came to an end, Spike finally woke up, meaning that Vida could come into his room as soon as she had the okay.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he joked, voice strained. Most of his body was wrapped in gauze with a brace on one foot. It was the first time Vida ever saw him such a state.

A few tears sprang from her eyes that she swiped away. “I’m glad you’re awake, Spike.”

“Doc said you haven’t left.”

“I didn’t know when you’d wake up. Jet makes me leave to sleep. He’s out in the waiting room if you wanna see him, too.”

Spike studied Vida with heavy eyes. She still looked like she hadn’t slept for days, her skin lost of its usual glow. She cared too much.

Her hand on his broke him out of his observation.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Spike. I was worried about you.”

“Thanks for following me.”

“Someone needed to. Jet was being an ass and Faye disappeared again. I couldn’t let you die out there…”

“Even though I was ready to?”

Vida’s eyes met his. “I wasn’t ready though.”

There was a beat of silence.

“You’re not falling for me, are you?” he smirked.

“You wish, cowboy.”

* * *

The road to recovery was a long one for Spike, but eventually, he was released. Unfortunately, Jet had to leave to help Faye who decided to reappear with trouble chasing her. That left Vida to bring Spike back to the Bebop.

He limped next to her, a little unsteady from his pain medication but too stubborn to accept Vida’s complete help.

“My ship is nearby. We can take it back to the Bebop and I’ll come out later to get yours back. Okay?”

Spike nodded, eyes falling on a flower stand. “Wait.”

Vida paused and watched Spike make his way to the stand to purchase a rose. He came back, his face serious and eyes dull.

“What do you need?”

“To go back.”

Vida blinked. “We, uh, can’t get very close. It’s blocked off. Crime scene and such.”

“I only need to see it.”

“Okay. Come on.”

Like she said, most of the block was warded off with yellow caution tape. Spike didn’t want to get close. He stood at the tape, staring up at the building.

Vida stood off to the side, far enough to give him his time alone. She had no need to invade his moment… whatever it was.

Eventually, Spike dug around inside his jacket pocket, pulling out something small. He stared at it for a moment before dropping it and the rose on the pavement.

He turned to Vida. “Let’s go.”

Vida stared after him before going over to what he dropped. Squatting down, she picked up a small piece of cardboard-like paper with a photo of a beautiful blonde woman on it. She glanced back at Spike’s retreating figure. Who was that woman to him? Why leave her picture behind? Why _forget_ her?

“Vida.”

“Coming!” she said, stuffing the photo in her coat and jogging to catch up with Spike.

* * *

Faye and Jet were back by the time Vida returned with Spike’s ship. Faye was hounding both men, Spike for trying to get himself killed and Jet for letting him.

“And you!” Faye turned on Vida.

“Leave her out of this, Faye,” Spike warned from the couch. His injured foot was propped on the table.

Faye ignored him. “You let these two idiots act like that?!”

“Of course not.”

Jet glared at Faye. “Vida isn’t our babysitter. _She_ was the one who went after Spike unlike you who ditched the moment there was trouble.”

Vida sat next to Spike to check over him. “I’m not some here, Jet. What I did wouldn’t matter if the doctors hadn’t fixed him up.” She smiled warmly at Spike as she gingerly touched the wound on his head. “I just did what I hope you all would do if I was in trouble. You make it sound like I saved Spike.”

“No, she definitely saved me,” Spike smirked, making her roll her eyes.

“She wouldn’t have needed to if you weren’t a dumbass!”

“Faye, please,” Vida said. “I don’t think you get to have an opinion when you left at the time we needed you. Your actions were no better than his.”

Faye’s brows furrowed and she lifted her hand to slap Vida across the face. Vida braced for it, knowing she hurt the lady hunter’s pride. But the hit never came. Instead, Spike grabbed Faye’s wrist before her palm made contact. She froze, eyes fixed on Spike.

“Just because she’s right doesn’t mean you get to hit her because you’re pissed.”

“I think you need to leave for a while, Faye,” Jet said. “Cool off.”

“When did she become so important?”

Vida frowned. She didn’t understand why Faye was lashing out at her. They didn’t have any issues before.

“The day she showed she cared for us more than we ever have,” Jet answered.

Faye ripped her arm out of Spike’s grip. “Fine. Enjoy playing house.” The violet-haired woman stomped toward the hangar, the sound of her ship leaving following after.

“I’m sorry about her, Vida,” Jet said as he rubbed his face.

“Don’t apologize for her. I’m all right.”

“Still doesn’t mean she should’ve tried to hit you.”

“She’s mad and worried about the two of you. She just doesn’t know how to express that except through shouting.”

Spike slid down more in his seat, his good leg touching Vida’s when he spread his legs wider. “Always looking for the positive…”

“Someone has to.”

Jet started toward his quarters grumbling about Faye. “Don’t bother me unless it’s an emergency. Got it?”

“Whatever you want, Jet,” Spike said.

Vida watched Jet leave until she heard the television startup with a random Western.

Spike changed the channel to Hot Shots. “How does Jet watch that crap?”

“Probably the same way you watch this for hours.”

“Funny.”

“Only when the moment calls for it.”

The hosts of the show rambled on about a new bounty worth a few thousand woolongs out by Io. Nothing to jump up for - not that Spike could go on a hunt.

“Thanks for stopping Faye. I probably could have been a little nicer though…”

“She deserved to hear it that way.”

“All I did was piss her off.”

“You called her out on her bullshit. She’ll get over it. Don’t worry about it.” Spike pulled out a bent cigarette from his jacket and lit it.

“Do you really think I saved you?”

“You did a long time ago.”

“What? But I only… Huh?”

Spike’s gaze shifted to hers, confusion written in her features. “In a way, you started waking me from my dream.”

“Dream? You mean that whole thing where you believe life is a dream and death is waking up? I’m death to you?”

He chuckled. “No. You’re the reason why I don’t think I have to die to wake up anymore.”

“Then… then why did you confront Vicious?”

“To tie loose ends. To kill off what was keeping me in the past.”

“But you had to lose her, too… didn’t you?”

Spike looked at the monitor. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I think I knew it would have to end with her.”

“What was supposed to end?”

“The dream.”

Vida tilted her head, staring at Spike’s profile. He was a strange man. “Are you living a new one then?”

“Maybe?”

“You don’t know?”

“Or care.”

She looked at the screen again. “How intriguing.”

“Bored of me talking?”

“Never. You don’t talk enough.”

“You talk too much.”

“Still less than Faye and Jet.”

He hummed.

Vida leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She still needed to catch up on the sleep she missed staying in the hospital.

“You don’t have to babysit me. Go to bed.”

“I’m not babysitting. I’m keeping you company.”

“Jet can do that, too.”

“He doesn’t want company. Plus, a woman’s company is much nicer.” She opened one eye to smirk at Spike. Amusement settled on his face when he looked her way again.

“Sometimes.”

Her eye closed. “You didn’t like me much after Jet invited me to stay on the Bebop.”

“We already had Faye and the kid with the dog.”

“I’m not so bad, right?”

“Depends.”

She nudged him with her shoulder, eyes open and steady on his face. Vida smiled. “I’m glad to hear I’m not always a pest.” She patted his leg still on her side of the couch.

Spike yawned and stretched, twisting around in his seat to lie across the couch, head on Vida’s lap. “Well, if you won’t sleep, I will.”

“You’re too tall for this couch,” she laughed, placing one hand on his chest.

“I sleep here all the time.”

“Yeah, but I’m not usually here.”

He grunted.”

Absentmindedly, Vida started to play with Spike’s hair with her other hand, eyes going back to the television. If she didn’t look at him, her stomach would stop twisting, right? The hair on her arm stood on end when he covered her hand on his chest. She didn’t look, afraid he’d stare right through her façade. Had she looked, Vida would have found him already lost in sleep.


End file.
